Sam Cane banned for Rugby World Cup final tackle

New Zealand captain Sam Cane has been banned by a disciplinary committee for his dangerous Rugby World Cup final tackle on South African centre Jessie Kriel.

Cane was yellow carded and then red carded on 'Bunker' review after tackling the Springboks centre high, contrary to law 9.13 (dangerous tackling) - in the All Blacks' 12-11 defeat at the Stade de France on October 28th.

It was the first ever red card handed out in a Men's Rugby World Cup final.

Cane - who spoke of having to live with the incident for the rest of his life - recently announced he will be taking a sabbatical with Japanese club Suntory Sun Goliath. He will miss next year's Super Rugby season as a result.

The 31-year-old appeared at the hearing over a zoom call today. The back row accepted a guilty plea in the case, accepting that he had committed an act of foul play but challenged the Foul Play Review Official’s decision that the act warranted a red card.

A World Rugby statement reads: "When applying World Rugby’s Head Contact Process there was no mitigation available to bring the degree of danger below the red card threshold. On that basis, and in considering the sanction, the independent committee applied World Rugby’s mandatory minimum mid-range entry point for foul play resulting in head contact (six matches). Taking all considerations into account, including the player’s exemplary disciplinary record, his early acknowledgement of foul play and his clear remorse, the independent Committee determined mitigation of three matches was appropriate."

He will now miss Suntory's first three Japan Rugby League One games against Toshiba, Panasonic and D-Rocks.

If Cane takes part in the World Rugby Coaching Intervention Programme, which he intends to, it will see the ban effectively go two games as he will substitute the final match of the sanction for a coaching intervention "aimed at modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contributed to the foul play subject to successful completion".

The independent Disciplinary Committee was chaired by Adam Casselden SC (Australia), joined by former international player Becky Essex (England) and former international referee Donal Courtney (Ireland).